Spring Garden 2017 Log - March 1, 2017

Busy, busy, busy around here.  John's been sick, so I've been letting him rest up and spending some time out in the garden.  The weather has been so fantastic, warm days, cool nights.

I've made a start in planting out the spring garden - mostly the things that can take a bit of frost should we have one -- I'm not convinced that we won't see another one or two before true spring weather comes around. Truthfully, I've sacrificed my share of tomato plants to the frost gods, so I'm not anxious to repeat that any time soon!

I spent some time planning out the garden during the winter, so I'm starting with Bed #2 which will have items that won't be bothered by a little cold weather. 

 Bed #2A started with all the little kale plants I started in the greenhouse this winter. They're not too big, but they will take off now that they're planted (hopefully!) It was getting too hot in the greenhouse for these anyway. There's Nero Di Toscana, Blue Curled Scotch, Vates, Lacinato and Siber Frill.

Next are Granex White Onions that we purchased at our local hardware store here in Pipe Creek.  Crossing my fingers that they will do well -- I'm fertilizing more this year, and more often, so hope so.

And at the end of this bed are the bunching onions that over-wintered here - plus another batch of these that I purchased at the Pipe Creek Farmer's Market.  John loves these onion tops on everything (yuck!)

I'm using cardboard and hay to make walking paths in the garden this year -- anything I can do to get rid of these weeds. Arghhh!!! 

Then yesterday I planted Bed #2B - this has the little Swiss Chard plants that I started in the greenhouse (Sea Foam and Orange Fantasia.) 

Next to them is a bunch of Sweet Red onions, again some starts that we got at the local hardware store.

And last in this bed is the Green Goliath broccoli that I started in the greenhouse.  I think there was only five little plants that made it (older seeds) but I think they look good.

I finished up Bed #2 today but forgot to take my camera out with me, so I'll blog about it tomorrow!
Meanwhile, I started some gourds in the greenhouse to put on the fencelines (penguin gourds, bushel gourds, bule gourds, swan gourds, and a gourd mix of small and large types)

and I had to plant the morning glories because they were getting too big and starting to vine out in the greenhouse.  I'll just have to cover these if we get another freeze - they don't like cold at all! These are the Grandpa Ott's morning glories, a deep purple.

All of the fruit trees that we planted in the new orchard are looking like they've taken off after transplanting. Our mulberry trees have little mulberries all over them for the first time! So neat to see these.

And finally - I got another little envelope from the garden group that I belong to on Facebook. This time it's peppers. I started a few of these in the greenhouse (Cubanelle, Hatch, and Beaver's Dam.) Looking forward to seeing how they do!